


headlands drowning don't leave me to bleed

by MistyDeath



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Draco Malfoy, Coffee, Dating, Fluff and Angst, Harry/Draco Owlpost Fest 2019, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 14:35:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyDeath/pseuds/MistyDeath
Summary: The coffee went over the cliff. To hell with the sea and the earth and everything to do with this day.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16
Collections: Harry/Draco Owlpost 2019





	headlands drowning don't leave me to bleed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Candamira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candamira/gifts).

> Happy OwlPost, Candamira!
> 
> Your first prompt sparked something inside and I couldn't wait to get this out for you - I hope you enjoy it.

Having a cup of coffee outside would have been par for the course in Draco Malfoy’s daily activities. 

The wind was blowing his hair this way and that, the sound of the sea was bright and lively, and for all intents and purposes, this could not have been a better day for a stroll. However, he’d managed to burn his hands twice, and since then, they had not stopped shaking.

He’d tried three times now to bring his hand up to soothe the pain away, and yet it appeared his other could not handle the instability his nerves were throwing about. The coffee sloshed again, and Draco Malfoy had had it.

The coffee went over the cliff. To hell with the sea and the earth and everything to do with this day. 

“You know, that’s probably not good for the environment. We’ve got spells for that now, you see,” a voice piped up behind him. And for all that was green and good on this Earth Draco couldn’t have brought himself to chuck the owner straight over with the damn thing.

But it was a thought. 

Instead, Draco crouched down and held his face between his hands and screamed. And two seconds into it, wanted to scream again, because they were still soaked in blood, as was his hair, his coat, everything. Yet his hands wouldn’t stop shaking so fucking much, so he couldn’t be fucking bothered to cast the right spell without slicing himself.

“You want me to help you?”

His face was hot, and even if he wanted to disappear into the ground, Draco bore down and cracked open an eye over the top knuckle of his forefinger. What a sight Draco must have made. 

And yet he couldn’t help but be grateful that the fucking prat was here; and that for once, in all the irony that was his very existence, Potter looked more pulled together and sane than he was. 

“…yes.”

“Tergeo.” It should have felt gross, but it didn’t. The blood was gone and Draco could inhale without wanting to vomit. He flexed his hand momentarily and winced. 

“Episkey.” Draco momentarily thought it was rude to do so without asking, but his mind was wiped blank when Potter reached out and pulled Draco up by his hand.

\--

For a moment, the pair looked like a couple taking a seaside stroll. For a moment, everything was clean, perfect, and had the soft warmth of an air still found in the chills of fall, burning the skin so slightly it made one forget the cold bitterness surrounding them. The hand tugging lightly on his own, pulling him back in the direction of realty, was a friend. It promised a future Draco had never known, and would likely never be able to imagine. 

“What would you like to do next?”

For a second Draco remembered his coffee, and after a quick look at his hands, Potter was pulling another cup out of thin air.

What was magic, he thought blithely, hand reaching for it. The heat of it had Draco snatching his hand back, and again, Potter murmured soft words to cool the drink before pushing the cup into Draco’s hands again.

“You’ve made me lukewarm coffee.”

“You weren’t handling the hot kind so well, so I thought – “

“Right.” Potter’s hand was still attached to the cuff of his coat, fingers lightly pressing into the material of his coat and somehow managing to burn fires into the bones beneath Draco’s shaking skin.

Draco sipped his coffee again, gone cold and made even more so by their surroundings. 

Potter looked at him from the side, and his eyes were still as jarring as they’d ever been. “So,” he said, “What would you like to do next?”

“What would I like to do next?” Draco parroted. “Yeah. Are you, are you going to go back? Because I really think we should maybe stay off to the side until – “

He coughed, and again the coffee was spilling, drops and sloshes down into the loamy earth beneath them. “You really think we should what, exactly? I’ve got a damn job to do, here, Potter. I can’t believe – really I can’t believe I just – “

“You’d just passed through and it happened. We talked to the other Aurors on scene…they’ve got your statement.”

“That was our first date in nearly three years, and it ends in a massacre.”

The words fell from his lips and for all the good that they did they might have just slipped off the cliffside. Potter wouldn’t listen to him. A few hours later, curled up alongside him in the heavy tartan quilt that clashed horribly with everything he knew, Draco thought it was the probably the one time Potter was right to do so.


End file.
